Client-side aggregation of web content

ABSTRACT

A method, system, and/or computer program product provides client-side aggregation of web content. A client system receives a web content structure document of a web page with an associated style-sheet. The web content is aggregated on the client-side by transforming the web content structure document into a target web page document by using the style-sheet, wherein during the aggregation further web content is received based on information in the web content structure document using the style-sheet document resulting in a fully aggregated web page, and wherein the aggregation does not interfere with any other client-side transformation of the web content. The fully aggregated web page is then rendered and displayed.

This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority fromUnited Kingdom (GB) Patent Application 1222213.9, filed on Dec. 11,2012, and herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates generally to the field of navigating aportal site and providing web content, and in particular to a method forclient-side aggregation of web content. The present invention relatesfurther to an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) transformer modulefor client-side aggregation of web content, a computing system, a dataprocessing program, and/or a computer program product.

Today, information retrieval and access without Internet technologiesare nearly impossible to imagine. With the beginning of the World WideWeb (WWW), a user requested a hypertext document from a server and theserver returned the same static document for every same request. Everyuser received the same content for the same entered URL (universalresource locator).

With the emergence of dynamic client and server technologies, a serverwas able to generate dynamic content. Servers could provide complex anddynamic content for business applications and user interfaces, dependingon a variety of factors, e.g., client request parameters, userpreferences, or backend state. Now, portal server products use dynamictechnologies and aggregate dynamic and static independent content fromdifferent sources or applications into an integrated content view. Thesecontent components are named portlets in a portal environment.

There are two types of content aggregation, server-side contentaggregation and client-side content aggregation.

In general, referring to FIG. 2, a browser/client BC sends a request Rto the server S and the server responses with the content of the webpage's page content PC. The client loads linked resources like images,or style-sheet, or JavaScript files afterwards. Caches in-between, likebrowser cache C1 or network node cache C2, can save the response fromthe server and returns it as a response for next same requests dependingon the response header information.

Referring to FIG. 3, in the server-side content aggregation case, theserver S takes the request R from the client BC, processes it,aggregates the content in the server-side and of the different portletstogether to the page content PC and responds with the logically completecontent to the client. Every time, the full page content is returnedfrom the server, the browser only renders it for the user. Searchengines are easily able to search or index the page content. Every clickon a new page content link triggers a full page change. The involvedcaches can only save and return the full content for an identicallyrequested URL depending of the response header information. When thepage content is aggregated on the server, the page's cache-ability isthat of the least cacheable component, typically leading to a limitedcache-ability.

In the client-side content aggregation case as opposed to theserver-side aggregation, the server does not provide a logicallycomplete content. It only sends the page content skeleton and bootstrapcode to initialize the aggregation but does not immediately provide thecontent of portlets. The client renders the content skeleton andaggregates the content client-side in the view layer by loading andinjecting the content of every required portlet with help of client sidetechnologies prior art based on JavaScript (JS). A click to change thecontent of the current view is almost all done by manipulating theexisting content with help of JS. JS also has to manage the client-sidestate of the current view. The involved caches can save and return theparticular required content fragments individually.

An example of known client-side aggregation of web content usesinformation that is provided to a client application by aggregation on aclient-side of a logically separated client-side/server-side computingenvironment. Information may be retained on the client-side that isdisplayed by a client application with required information provided bya portal application server on the server-side of theclient-side/server-side computing environment.

Client-side-content aggregation has the following advantages overserver-side content aggregation. It saves bandwidth on the server andnetwork nodes due to individually content fragment caching. Server-sideCPU cycles are offloaded to the client-side. It also may load the pagecontent faster, improves user experience and reduces infrastructurecost.

But traditional client-side content aggregation has also some drawbacks.It often needs many complex JavaScripts to load and manipulate content,manage the client-side state and interpret common browser events, all ofwhich results in error prone user interface code. There may also oftenbe flickering or undesired motion in the page during the renderingbecause the portlet content is injected after the rendering process bythe browser. This is an inevitable consequence of using JavaScript forthe client-side approach. Additionally, due to browser incompatibilityin usage of JavaScript, it is necessary to test the client-side code inevery supported client platform. Moreover, there is only limited“crawlability” for search engines or browsers' content “bookmarkability”because the JavaScript code has to be executed before the content iscompleted. Today's web crawlers, however, do not execute JavaScript.Additional drawbacks include the following: Heavy usage of JavaScriptand rare page switches are often the reason of client memory leaks inthe browser. Since the step of aggregating the page out of a skeletonand portlet fragments is executed in the rendering step of the browser,the script used to aggregate the page can easily conflict with otherscripts on the page. This kind of interoperability problems is hard orimpossible to debug and resolve.

SUMMARY

A method, system, and/or computer program product provides client-sideaggregation of web content. A client system receives a web contentstructure document of a web page with an associated style-sheet. The webcontent is aggregated on the client-side by transforming the web contentstructure document into a target web page document by using thestyle-sheet, wherein during the aggregation further web content isreceived based on information in the web content structure documentusing the style-sheet document resulting in a fully aggregated web page,and wherein the aggregation does not interfere with any otherclient-side transformation of the web content. The fully aggregated webpage is then rendered and displayed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Illustrative embodiments of the invention will now be described, by wayof example only, and with reference to the following drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the inventive methodfor client-side aggregation;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a server-side content aggregationaccording to the state-of-the-art;

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a client-side aggregation according tothe state-of-the-art;

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram embodiment of elements and devices involvedin the inventive method;

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the XSL transformermodule;

FIG. 6 details further components and elements of the inventive concept;

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of a state diagram related to the inventiveconcept;

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of a block diagram of the XSLtransformer module for client-side aggregation; and

FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of a computing system comprising the XSLtransformer module.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Server-side and client-side aggregation can be used independently ofeach other or in combination of both. As a result of their differentnatures, they cover a variety of operation scenarios. Nevertheless,there is room for improvement. Consequently, there may be a need for animproved client-side aggregation solving the above-mentioned drawbacks.

This need is addressed by the novel method, described herein, forclient-side aggregation of web content, an XSL (eXtended Style-sheetLanguage) transformer module for client-side aggregation of web content,a computing system, a data processing program, and/or a computer programproduct according to the independent claims.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method forclient-side aggregation of web content may be provided. The method maycomprise receiving a web content structure document of a web page withan associated style-sheet by a client system, and aggregating the webcontent on the client-side by transforming the web content structuredocument into a target web page document by using the style-sheet,wherein during the aggregation further web content may be received basedon information in the web content structure document using thestyle-sheet document resulting in a fully aggregated web page, andwherein the aggregation may not interfere with any other client-sidetransformation of the web content. The method may also compriserendering the fully aggregated web page, and displaying the renderedfully aggregated web page.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, an XSLtransformer module for client-side aggregation of web content may beprovided. The XSL transformer module may comprise a receiving unitadapted for receiving a web content structure document of a web pagewith an associated style-sheet by a client system, and an aggregationunit adapted for aggregating the web content on the client-side bytransforming the web content structure document into a target web pagedocument by using the style-sheet, wherein during the aggregationfurther web content is received based on information in the web contentstructure document using the style-sheet document resulting in a fullyaggregated web page, and wherein the aggregation does not interfere withany other client-side transformation of the web content. Furthermore,the XSL transformer module may comprise a rendering unit adapted forrendering the fully aggregated web page, and a displaying unit adaptedfor displaying the rendered fully aggregated web page.

It may be noted that the associated style-sheet may comprise web pagedesign statements according to the extended style-sheet languagebelonging to the family of XML (eXtended Markup Language) code definedtransformation languages. The underlying web content structure documentmay, e.g., be a document being defined using the XML language.

The target web page document may, e.g., be designed as an HTML document(hypertext markup language), and thus, may comprise HTML statementsalongside with the pure content.

The web content that may further be received may be requested and/orfetched from the server and may, e.g., comprise images, portlet markups,fragments, and other information elements processable by a web browserlike video and audio files.

In the context of this description, the following conventions, termsand/or expressions may be used:

The term “client-side aggregation” denotes that web content to be usedor displayed on a client in a client/server computing environment may beaggregated on the client-side. In the context of this disclosure,aggregation of web content may not be intermixed with rendering of theweb content to be displayed. Here, both activities (aggregation andrendering) may be logically separated.

The term “web content structure document” denotes content in astructured form of markup elements, such as portlet or theme markupfragments, etc., to be used on a computer system, e.g., a client systemusing a browser to display the content comprised in the web contentstructure document.

The term “web page” may be used in a skilled person's manner and maydenote a document or information resource that is suitable for the WorldWide Web and may be accessed through a web browser and displayed on acomputer monitor or a screen of a mobile device or other end user facingdevices. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format (eXtendedHTML), and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertextlinks. Web pages frequently subsume other resources such asstyle-sheets, scripts and images into their final presentation.

The term “associated style-sheet” denotes a document using a style-sheetlanguage, or style language, which may be a computer language that mayexpress a presentation of structured documents. One attractive featureof structured documents is that the content may be re-used in manycontexts and presented in various ways. Different style-sheets may beattached to the logical structure to produce different presentations.Modern style-sheet language make a widespread use of CascadingStyle-sheets (CSS), which may be used to style documents written inHTML, XHTML, SVG, XUL, and other markup languages. For content instructured documents to be presented, a set of stylisticrules—describing, e.g., colors, fonts and layout—must be applied. Acollection of stylistic rules is called a style-sheet. For the currentinvention the style-sheet may refer to a set of rules that transformsthe XML based web structure document into the final markup.

The term client system may denote a computing system being dependent inits full functionality from a server in a client/server computingenvironment.

The term “aggregating” denotes—in the context of web content—gatheringinformation and style elements for a web page without executing scriptsand/or Java code as part of the information element. An execution ofscripts and/or Java code or other executable code elements as part ofthe information element may be performed after the aggregation, namelyin a rendering step before displaying the web page.

The term “target web page document” denotes a web page document after anaggregation of web page content, wherein the instructions of thestyle-sheet document are instrumental. A source for the target web pagedocument may be the web content structure document as well as theassociated style-sheet. The target web page document may comprise afully aggregated web page, but without any results from scripts orJavaCode.

The term “further web content” denotes content documents to be includedinto the final displayed web page, e.g., images, portlet markups,portlet fragments, etc.

The term “fully aggregated web page” denotes a web page document afterthe aggregation and before the rendering.

The term “XSL transformer module” denotes a device comprising elementsas outlined in claim(s) and/or description provided herein. It may beimplemented in hardware, in software or, in combination of hardware andsoftware.

In the following, a detailed description of the figures will be given.All instructions in the figures are schematic. First, a block diagram ofan embodiment of the inventive method for client-side aggregation of webcontent is given. Afterwards, further embodiments of the XSL transformermodule for client-side aggregation of web content will be described.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the method 100 forclient-side aggregation of web content. The method may comprisereceiving, 102, a web content structure document, e.g., an XML document,of a web page with an associated style-sheet, e.g., in XSL, by a clientsystem, aggregating, 104, the web content on the client-side bytransforming, 106, the web content structure document into a target webpage document, in particular, in HTML format, by using the style-sheet.During the aggregation further web content may be received. Inparticular, it may be requested and fetched and/or received from theserver. Such content may comprise images, portlet markups, informationfragments, etc. This additional content may be based on information inthe web content structure document and using the style-sheet documentand it may result in a fully aggregated web page. However, theaggregation may not interfere, or be in conflict, or interact with anyother client-side transformations of the web content, which may include,e.g., an execution of Java-Script or other scripts. Executing suchscripts may be performed during rendering, 108, the fully aggregated webpage. This fully aggregated web page may then be displayed, 110.

The presented method for client-side aggregation of web content offersseveral advantages:

In general, the present invention is an advancement over the traditionalclient-side content aggregation. But, it may not follow the existingclient-side approach of aggregating the content during the renderingprocess. In contrast to this, the inventive approach may aggregate thecontent before the rendering process, however, still on the client-side.So, the browser will always receive a logically complete page beforescripts and styles may be evaluated. Consequently, compared to prior artof client-side aggregation, any script execution may not be influencedby the aggregation process, since this process may occur before thescript execution and may not be interwoven. Thus, at first, the pagemark-up may be completely aggregated without any script execution. Then,in a following step, scripts of the web page may be executedindependently from the aggregation process. So, in contrast to priorart, aggregation and script execution may be separated. Additionally, itadapts the full page refresh on every click from the server-sideaggregation to the client-side aggregation. This will be outlined laterusing FIG. 4.

The inventive approach may not imply a particular implementationtechnology. The aggregation may be done with any technology that may besupported by browsers in that phase of the browser that may be locatedbefore the rendering process. One example of such a technology may beXSL transformation (XSLT), since the design concept of XSLT is toproduce user facing mark-up, e.g., HTML, in contrast to technologiessuch as JavaScript that operate on top of already generated mark-up. TheXSLT mark-up generation process may be able to combine multiple XMLbased mark-up sources. These different sources may represent componentsof the web page, e.g., portlets that get aggregated by the XSLTtransformation.

The approach may also share advantages with existing client-sideadvantages like high performance and bandwidth saving because most ofthe page components may be cached in network nodes or a browser's cache.

Additionally, it may have the following advantages over existingclient-side aggregation approaches: There may be no flickering of auser's view because the information fragments may be aggregated beforethe page may be rendered. There may be a clean full page refresh onevery click which may prevent leaking of JavaScript memory. There may befull support for back buttons, bookmarks, and crawlers. Complex linkrewriting may not be required because every click may result in a fullpage refresh. Complex script execution logic may not be required, sincethe web page may appear as a full web page to the browser and script mayjust be executed. It may also be ideal for mobile devices accessing theInternet, since the mark-up of the individual components may be smallerthan the caching limit on, e.g., some mobile phones, in contrast to aserving of a full page.

An implementation of the current invention may be based on XSLT becausethis may have the following advantages: It is based on well-knownstandards and may be supported by all browsers, also on mobile devices.XML is smaller than HTML. This may reduce response element sizes. And,if portlets may generate XML instead of HTML fragments for the web page,an XSLT based implementation may also offload the rendering of theportlet's content to the client and reduce the bandwidth even more.

In the following, further advantageous embodiments will be described:

According to one embodiment of the method presented by the presentinvention, the step of aggregating may be completed before the step ofrendering may be started. Using this separation, the step of aggregationand rendering may be logically separated completely. The aggregation maynot be disturbed by any rendering activities like execution of scriptsand styles.

According to a further embodiment of the method, the step of aggregatingmay be performed excluding any script execution. Script execution or anexecution of Java-Code may be performed during the rendering step of themethod. Again, it logically and time-wise decouples the twophases—aggregation and rendering—of the web page to be displayed. Thus,according to one embodiment of the method, scripts and styles of the webpage may be evaluated and executed during the step of rendering.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the method, the aggregationmay be implemented as a single extended style-sheet languagetransformation resulting in an HTML document. Thus, when a server mayrespond with an XML document with an associated style-sheet document ona client request, the extended style-sheet language transformation maybe performed. The resulting HTML document may then represent the inputfor the step of rendering.

According to a further embodiment of the method, the aggregation may usea style-sheet document comprising theme components. This may enhance theapplicability of the proposed method to a more or less complete range ofapplications.

According to one embodiment of the method, the style-sheet document mayalso comprise portlet related fragments. These may be present in theform of XML or HTML based documents. Thus, the normal mode of operationof web and/or portal pages may be handled by the inventive method.

According to just a further embodiment of the method, individuallyreceived elements of the web page by the client may be independentlycacheable on the client-side. This may have the advantage that notransmission of the complete web page content may be required. Onlysmall elements, e.g., an individual portlet content that may be handledindividually may be required for re-transmission after small changes tothe content of the web page displayed by the client.

According to one embodiment of the method, relative universal resourcelocators (URLs) are used in the portlet fragments for navigation. Thismay represent another enhancement due to the following: An XSLT thememay request portlet fragments, so each fragment may be cachedindividually. However these portlet fragments may contain themselvesURLs that may need to contain the full navigational state of allcomponents, so, the fragments would face the same cache-ability issue asa full page. The XSLT approach used here may solve this problem by usingrelative URLs in the portlet fragments. Each relative URL may onlycontain that portion of the navigational state that may be relevant tothe fragment. The theme may establish a base URL such that theserelative URLs may be appended to the base to form the full state. As aconsequence, the cache characteristics of a portlet fragment may bedecoupled from those of the full page.

Furthermore, embodiments may take the form of a computer programproduct, accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable mediumproviding program code for use, by or in connection with a computer orany instruction execution system. For the purpose of this description, acomputer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any apparatus thatmay contain means for storing, communicating, propagating ortransporting the program for use, by or in a connection with theinstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The medium may be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared or a semi-conductor system for a propagation medium. Examplesof a computer-readable medium may include a semi-conductor or solidstate memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a randomaccess memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk andan optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compactdisk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W), DVDand Blu-Ray-Disk.

It should also be noted that embodiments of the invention have beendescribed with reference to different subject-matters. In particular,some embodiments have been described with reference to method typeclaims whereas other embodiments have been described with reference toapparatus type claims. However, a person skilled in the art will gatherfrom the above and the following description that, unless otherwisenotified, in addition to any combination of features belonging to onetype of subject-matter, also any combination between features relatingto different subject-matters, in particular, between features of themethod type claims, and features of the apparatus type claims, isconsidered as to be disclosed within this document.

The aspects defined above and further aspects of the present inventionare apparent from the examples of embodiments to be describedhereinafter and are explained with reference to the examples ofembodiments, but to which the invention is not limited.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram 200 of a server-side content aggregationaccording to the state-of-the-art. A server S may aggregate content “A”,“B” and “C” in related portlets and send it—in response to a request Rfrom a client/browser system BC—in HTML format which may have madereferences to cascading style-sheets (CSS) or Java-Script (JS) beforesending it, potentially via an HTTPServer/proxy having a cache C2 to arendering engine for display. The client/browser system BC may also havea cache C1.

In contrast to this, FIG. 3 shows a block diagram 300 of a client-sideaggregation according to the state-of-the-art. In this case, the serverS would provide an HTML skeleton with portlet frames to the renderingengine on the BC side. The function of the caches C1 and C2 may beunchanged. A request R from the client/browser may result in HTMLportlet fragments A, B, C with potential references to CSS/JS. Theseportlet fragments may then be integrated into the earlier received HTMLpage skeleton by the rendering engine and may be displayed.

In contrast to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, FIG. 4 shows a block diagramembodiment 400 of elements and devices involved in the inventive methodpresented above. Functional equivalent elements will not be describedagain. However, on the browser/client-side BC, the client aggregationfunction is clearly separated from the rendering element. Theaggregation element aggregated all content inputs from the server into adocument object model, DOM and may transfer it in HTML format to therendering engine for displaying. Two clearly distinguished functionalblocks for rendering and aggregating are suggested.

FIG. 5 details this even more, with system 500 showing that aggregationand rendering is no longer combined, but separate.

Here, the inventive approach hooks in one step before the renderingprocess and performs an aggregation instead during the renderingprocess. As a result, the rendering process always receives the alreadyaggregated content before scripts and styles are evaluated. Aggregationand rendering including script execution are logically decoupled. Forthis approach the browser built-in XSLT processor or transformer modulemay be leveraged.

XSLT is a process of transformation of a source XML document into atarget document based on a style-sheet language document (XSL). Thetarget document may be in XML syntax or in another format, such as HTMLor plain text. In the current case, the transformation to HTML may berequired. XSLT style-sheet transformation instructions may be linked toexternal resources, e.g., on the server. During the XSL transformation,the XSLT transformer module may load required content from linkedresources. With help of this functionality, transforming and loading ofcontent, the XSLT transformation may be used in the describedaggregation process.

The implementation of client-side aggregation in XSLT is especiallystraight forward, because it may natively be supported by the browser.

FIG. 5 shows the involved components on the client- and the server-sidewithout any additional caches. There is the common rendering engine, thedifferent kind of XML and XLS files and the transformer module thattransform the XML to the HTML/DOM. Scripts 502 are provided directly tothe rendering engine 504. The same applies to CSS 508. XSL 510 and XMLfiles 512 may be directed—upon request—from the server to thetransformer module 506 directly. Also the earlier described DOM documentbetween the transformer module 506 and the rendering engine 504 isshown.

FIG. 6 details further components and elements of the inventive concept.The complete page content aggregation may be implemented as a single XSLtransformer module 506 that is executed in the browser/clientautomatically when the server may response an XML document with anassociated style-sheet language document (XSL) 510. In this approach,the client may send the usual request to the server and the serverresponses with a bootstrap XML document. The bootstrap may be performedby a bootstrap module 602 by serving the content of the web page as anXML document with an associated style-sheet document (XSL) (see also ref“I” in FIG. 7). This bootstrap XML document may be very small and mayonly contain links to fragments of the web page. It may, e.g., have thefollowing content:

<?xml version=’1.0’ encoding =‘UTF-8‘?> <xml-stylesheet type=‘text/XSL’href=’/wps/contenthandler/XSTL/...’?> <data> ... </data>

The style-sheet document consists of the theme portion and optionally ofstyle-sheets that transform XML based portlet fragments. The style-sheetcontent may be combined on the server during page initialization (seealso ref “II” in FIG. 7).

When the browser executes the transformation, it may use the document( )function to pull in required fragments such as different kinds of feedsor portlet fragments (see also ref “III” in FIG. 7). The navigation RESTfeed, for example, may be used to display a navigation section in thepage or the layout model feed to create a structure hierarchy of theportlet fragments. This is shown in block 604. Also the core aggregationcomponent is shown as element 606 in FIG. 6.

Portlet fragments can either be HTML documents 610 or XML documents 512.Traditionally, portlets generate HTML fragments that are directlyembedded into the target mark-up (see also ref “VI” in FIG. 7). Portletsmay also produce XML fragments and participate in the already executedtransformation. These fragments would be transformed first and thenembedded (see also ref. “V” in FIG. 7) into the framing content.

Portlet XML elements 512 and portlet HTML elements 610 may beindividually cacheable fragments.

The result of a transformation may then be provided to the renderingprocess performed by the rendering engine 504 of the browser which mayrender the web page content the same way as in the server-sideaggregation case for display 612.

The following flow diagram of FIG. 7 shows the flow diagram of theinventive process 700 implemented with the preferred client-side XSLTtransformation in a portal environment based on a XSLT theme, beginningwith the browser's request and ending with the rendered aggregated pagecontent. However, the key aspect of the inventive method may be theaggregation of the content before the rendering process. Thisaggregation may be performed by blocks 702 and 704. The caches may bechecked (in FIG. 7, “Check Cache”) for content for a specified URL thatmay already be available. Reference numerals 706 may denote a “saveresponse if possible”.

FIG. 8 shows another view of a block diagram of the transformer or XSLtransformer module 506 for client-side aggregation of web content. TheXSL transformer module may comprise a receiving unit 802 adapted forreceiving a web content structure document of a web page with anassociated style-sheet by a client system, an aggregation unit 606adapted for aggregating the web content on the client-side bytransforming the web content structure document into a target web pagedocument by using the style-sheet, wherein during the aggregationfurther web content is received based on information in the web contentstructure document using the style-sheet document resulting in a fullyaggregated web page, and wherein the aggregation unit activities may notinterfere with any other client-side transformation of the web content.Furthermore, a rendering unit 504 adapted for rendering the fullyaggregated web page, and a displaying unit 804 adapted for displayingthe rendered fully aggregated web page are present.

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented together with virtuallyany type of computer, regardless of the platform being suitable forstoring and/or executing program code. For example, as shown in FIG. 9,a computing system 900 may include one or more processor(s) 902 with oneor more cores per processor, associated memory elements 904, an internalstorage device 906 (e.g., a hard disk, an optical drive such as acompact disk drive or digital video disk (DVD) drive, a flash memorystick, a solid-state disk, etc.), and numerous other elements andfunctionalities, typical of today's computers (not shown). The memoryelements 904 may include a main memory, e.g., a random access memory(RAM), employed during actual execution of the program code, and a cachememory, which may provide temporary storage of at least some programcode and/or data in order to reduce the number of times, code and/ordata must be retrieved from a long-term storage medium or external bulkstorage 916 for an execution. Elements inside the computing system 900may be linked together by means of a bus system 918 with correspondingadapters. Additionally, A XSL transformer module 506 for client-sideaggregation of web content may also be attached to the bus system 918.

The computing system 900 may also include input means, such as akeyboard 908, a pointing device such as a mouse 910, or a microphone(not shown). Alternatively, the computing system may be equipped with atouch sensitive screen as main input device. Furthermore, the computingsystem 900, may include output means, such as a monitor or screen 912[e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display, a lightemitting diode display (LED), or cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor]. Thecomputing system 900 may be connected to a network (e.g., a local areanetwork (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet or anyother similar type of network, including wireless networks via a networkinterface connection 914. This may allow a coupling to other computersystems or a storage network or a tape drive. Those, skilled in the artwill appreciate that many different types of computer systems exist, andthe aforementioned input and output means may take other forms.Generally speaking, the computing system 900 may include at least theminimal processing, input and/or output means, necessary to practiceembodiments of the invention.

The proposed method for client-side aggregation of web content may offera couple of advantages:

In general, the present invention is advancement over the traditionalclient-side content aggregation. But, it may not follow the existingclient-side approach of aggregating the content during the renderingprocess. In contrast to this, the inventive approach may aggregate thecontent before the rendering process, however, still on the client-side.So, the browser will always receive a logically complete page beforescripts and styles may be evaluated. Consequently, compared to prior artof client-side aggregation, any script execution may not be influencedby the aggregation process, since this process may occur before thescript execution and may not be interwoven. Thus, at first, the pagemark-up may be completely aggregated without any script execution. Then,in a following step, scripts of the web page may be executedindependently from the aggregation process. So, in contrast to priorart, aggregation and script execution may be separated. Additionally, itadapts the full page refresh on every click from the server-sideaggregation to the client-side aggregation. This is described in detailin FIG. 4.

The inventive approach may not imply a particular implementationtechnology. The aggregation may be done with any technology that may besupported by browsers in that phase of the browser that may be locatedbefore the rendering process. One example of such a technology may beXSL transformation (XSLT), since the design concept of XSLT is toproduce user facing mark-up, e.g., HTML, in contrast to technologiessuch as JavaScript that operate on top of already generated mark-up. TheXSLT mark-up generation process may be able to combine multiple XMLbased mark-up sources. These different sources may represent componentsof the web page, e.g., portlets that get aggregated by the XSLTtransformation.

The approach may also share advantages with existing client-sideadvantages like high performance and bandwidth saving because most ofthe page components may be cached in network nodes or a browser's cache.

Additionally, it may have the following advantages over existingclient-side aggregation approaches: There may be no flickering of auser's view because the information fragments may be aggregated beforethe page may be rendered. There may be a clean full page refresh onevery click which may prevent leaking of JavaScript memory. There may befull support for back buttons, bookmarks, and crawlers. Complex linkrewriting may not be required because every click may result in a fullpage refresh. Complex script execution logic may not be required, sincethe web page may appear as a full web page to the browser and script mayjust be executed. It may also be ideal for mobile devices accessing theInternet, since the mark-up of the individual components may be smallerthan the caching limit on, e.g., some mobile phones, in contrast to aserving of a full page.

An implementation of the current invention may be based on XSLT becausethis may have the following advantages: It is based on well-knownstandards and may be supported by all browsers, also on mobile devices.XML is smaller than HTML. This may reduce response element sizes. And,if portlets may generate XML instead of HTML fragments for the web page,an XSLT based implementation may also offload the rendering of theportlet's content to the client and reduce the bandwidth even more.

In the following, further advantageous embodiments will be described:

According to one embodiment of the method presented by the presentinvention, the step of aggregating may be completed before the step ofrendering may be started. Using this separation, the step of aggregationand rendering may be logically separated completely. The aggregation maynot be disturbed by any rendering activities like execution of scriptsand styles.

According to a further embodiment of the method, the step of aggregatingmay be performed excluding any script execution. Script execution or anexecution of Java-Code may be performed during the rendering step of themethod. Again, it logically and time-wise decouples the twophases—aggregation and rendering—of the web page to be displayed. Thus,according to one embodiment of the method, scripts and styles of the webpage may be evaluated and executed during the step of rendering.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the method, the aggregationmay be implemented as a single extended style-sheet languagetransformation resulting in an HTML document. Thus, when a server mayrespond with an XML document with an associated style-sheet document ona client request, the extended style-sheet language transformation maybe performed. The resulting HTML document may then represent the inputfor the step of rendering.

According to a further embodiment of the method, the aggregation may usea style-sheet document comprising theme components. This may enhance theapplicability of the proposed method to a more or less complete range ofapplications.

According to one embodiment of the method, the style-sheet document mayalso comprise portlet related fragments. These may be present in theform of XML or HTML based documents. Thus, the normal mode of operationof web and/or portal pages may be handled by the inventive method.

According to a further embodiment of the method, individually receivedelements of the web page by the client may be independently cacheable onthe client-side. This may have the advantage that no transmission of thecomplete web page content may be required. Only small elements, e.g., anindividual portlet content that may be handled individually may berequired for re-transmission after small changes to the content of theweb page displayed by the client.

According to one embodiment of the method presented herein, relativeuniversal resource locators (URLs) are used in the portlet fragments fornavigation. This may represent another enhancement due to the following:An XSLT theme may request portlet fragments, so each fragment may becached individually. However these portlet fragments may containthemselves URLs that may need to contain the full navigational state ofall components, so, the fragments would face the same cache-abilityissue as a full page. The XSLT approach used here may solve this problemby using relative URLs in the portlet fragments. Each relative URL mayonly contain that portion of the navigational state that may be relevantto the fragment. The theme may establish a base URL such that theserelative URLs may be appended to the base to form the full state. As aconsequence, the cache characteristics of a portlet fragment may bedecoupled from those of the full page.

Furthermore, embodiments may take the form of a computer programproduct, accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable mediumproviding program code for use, by or in connection with a computer orany instruction execution system. For the purpose of this description, acomputer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any apparatus thatmay contain means for storing, communicating, propagating ortransporting the program for use, by or in a connection with theinstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The medium may be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared or a semi-conductor system for a propagation medium. Examplesof a computer-readable medium may include a semi-conductor or solidstate memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a randomaccess memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk andan optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compactdisk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W), DVDand Blu-Ray-Disk.

It should also be noted that embodiments of the invention have beendescribed with reference to different subject-matters. In particular,some embodiments have been described with reference to method typeclaims whereas other embodiments have been described with reference toapparatus type claims. However, a person skilled in the art will gatherfrom the above and the following description that, unless otherwisenotified, in addition to any combination of features belonging to onetype of subject-matter, also any combination between features relatingto different subject-matters, in particular, between features of themethod type claims, and features of the apparatus type claims, isconsidered as to be disclosed within this document.

The aspects defined above and further aspects of the present inventionare apparent from the examples of embodiments to be describedhereinafter and are explained with reference to the examples ofembodiments, but to which the invention is not limited.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of thisdisclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments may be devised, whichdo not depart from the scope of the invention, as disclosed herein.Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by theattached claims. Also, elements described in association with differentembodiments may be combined. It should also be noted that referencesigns in the claims should not be construed as limiting elements.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentdisclosure may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosure may take theform of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that may contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that may communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wire-line, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present disclosure are described with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. It will be understood that each block of theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations ofblocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, may beimplemented by computer program instructions. These computer programinstructions may be provided to a processor of a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus, create means for implementing thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that may direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions, whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions, which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture,functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems,methods and computer program products according to various embodimentsof the present disclosure. In this regard, each block in the blockdiagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, whichcomprises one or more executable instructions for implementing thespecified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in somealternative implementations, the functions discussed hereinabove mayoccur out of the disclosed order. For example, two functions taught insuccession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or thefunctions may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending uponthe functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams, may beimplemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform thespecified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to limit of the invention. As usedherein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to includethe plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or steps plus function elements in the claims below are intendedto include any structure, material, or act for performing the functionin combination with other claimed elements, as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skills in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skills in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications, as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for client-side aggregation of webcontent, the method comprising: receiving, by a client system, a firstweb content structure document of a web page and an associatedstyle-sheet, wherein the first web content structure document is anextensible markup language (XML) document that contains a first set ofcontent to be displayed in a web page, and wherein the associatedstyle-sheet is an extensible style-sheet language (XSL) document thatdescribes a visual layout to be used when displaying the web page;retrieving, by the client system, a second set of content to bedisplayed in the web page based on a link to an external resourcedescribed in an extensible style-sheet language transformer (XSLT)document from the client system, wherein the external resource is on aserver that is network-coupled to the client system, and wherein thesecond set of content is contained in a second web content structuredocument; aggregating, by the client system, the first set of contentwith the second set of content to create a combined set of content,wherein aggregating the first set of content with the second set ofcontent does not interfere with any other client-side transformation ofweb content; in response to the combined set of content being created,executing script from the XSL document to create a fully aggregated webpage by transforming the combined set of content into a hypertext markuplanguage (HTML) document, wherein said executing script from the XSLdocument is blocked until said combined set of content is created suchthat no interaction between said aggregating and said executing thescript occurs; rendering, by a browser on the client system, the fullyaggregated web page through use of the HTML document; displaying therendered fully aggregated web page; detecting, by the client system, anactivation of an element on the rendered fully aggregated web page,wherein the activation of the element causes a change to the combinedset of content; and in response to detecting the activation of theelement on the rendered fully aggregated web page, executing a full pagerefresh of the rendered fully aggregated web page, wherein the full pagerefresh of the rendered fully aggregated web page releases memory thatcontained the XSL document, and wherein the released memory is used tostore the change to the combined set of content that was caused by theactivation of the element.
 2. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving, by the client system, a uniform resource locator(URL) address for the associated style-sheet; caching, in a cache in theclient system, the URL address for the associated style-sheet;receiving, by the client system, a third web content structure document;retrieving, by the client system, the URL address for the associatedstyle-sheet from the cache in the client system; retrieving, by theclient system, the associated style-sheet at the URL address in thecache; and applying, by the client system, the associated style-sheet tothe third web content structure document.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, wherein said aggregating the web content on the client-side isperformed excluding any script execution, wherein said aggregating theweb content occurs before said any script execution, wherein saidaggregating is not interwoven with said any script execution, wherein apage markup of the web page is completely aggregated without said anyscript execution, and wherein said any script execution is executedindependently from and subsequently to the aggregation process.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein scripts and styles of the web pageare evaluated and executed during said rendering the fully aggregatedweb page.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said aggregatingthe web content on the client-side is implemented as a single extendedstyle-sheet language transformation resulting in an HTML document. 6.The method according to claim 1, wherein, for said aggregating the webcontent on the client-side, a style-sheet document comprising themecomponents is used.
 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein thestyle-sheet document further comprises portlet related fragments.
 8. Themethod according to claim 7, wherein relative universal resourcelocators are used in the portlet related fragments for navigation. 9.The method according to claim 1, wherein individually received elementsof the web page by the client system are independently cacheable on theclient-side.
 10. A computer system comprising one or more processors,one or more computer readable memories, and one or more non-transitorycomputer readable storage mediums, and program instructions stored on atleast one of the one or more non-transitory computer readable storagemediums for execution by at least one of the one or more processors viaat least one of the one or more memories, the stored programinstructions comprising: program instructions to receive a first webcontent structure document of a web page and an associated style-sheet,wherein the first web content structure document is an extensible markuplanguage (XML) document that contains a first set of content to bedisplayed in a web page, and wherein the associated style-sheet is anextensible style-sheet language (XSL) document that describes a visuallayout to be used when displaying the web page; program instructions toretrieve a second set of content to be displayed in the web page basedon a link to an external resource described in an extensible style-sheetlanguage transformer (XSLT) document from the client system, wherein theexternal resource is on a server that is network-coupled to the clientsystem, and wherein the second set of content is contained in a secondweb content structure document; program instructions to aggregate thefirst set of content with the second set of content to create a combinedset of content, wherein aggregating the first set of content with thesecond set of content does not interfere with any other client-sidetransformation of web content; program instructions to, in response tothe combined set of content being created, execute script from the XSLdocument to create a fully aggregated web page by transforming thecombined set of content into a hypertext markup language (HTML)document, wherein said executing script from the XSL document is blockeduntil said combined set of content is created such that no interactionbetween said aggregating and said executing the script occurs; programinstructions to render, by a browser, the fully aggregated web pagethrough use of the HTML document; program instructions to display therendered fully aggregated web page; program instructions to detect anactivation of an element on the rendered fully aggregated web page,wherein the activation of the element causes a change to the combinedset of content; and program instructions to, in response to detectingthe activation of the element on the rendered fully aggregated web page,execute a full page refresh of the rendered fully aggregated web page,wherein the full page refresh of the rendered fully aggregated web pagereleases memory that contained the XSL document, and wherein thereleased memory is used to store the change to the combined set ofcontent that was caused by the activation of the element.
 11. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, from the client system tothe server, a request for the first web content structure document; inresponse to the server receiving the request for the first web contentstructure document, receiving, by the client system, a bootstrap XMLdocument, wherein the bootstrap XML document contains only links tofragments of the web page.
 12. A computer program product forclient-side aggregation of web content, the computer program productcomprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium havingprogram code embodied therewith, the program code readable andexecutable by a processor to perform a method comprising: receiving, bya client system, a first web content structure document of a web pagewith an associated style-sheet, wherein the first web content structuredocument is an extensible markup language (XML) document that contains afirst set of content to be displayed in a web page, and wherein theassociated style-sheet is an extensible style-sheet language (XSL)document that describes a visual layout to be used when displaying theweb page; retrieving, by the client system, a second set of content tobe displayed in the web page based on a link to an external resourcedescribed in an extensible style-sheet language transformer (XSLT)document from the client system, wherein the external resource is on aserver that is network-coupled to the client system, and wherein thesecond set of content is contained in a second web content structuredocument; aggregating, by the client system, the first set of contentwith the second set of content to create a combined set of content,wherein aggregating the first set of content with the second set ofcontent does not interfere with any other client-side transformation ofweb content; in response to the combined set of content being created,executing script from the XSL document to create a fully aggregated webpage by transforming the combined set of content into a hypertext markuplanguage (HTML) document, wherein said executing script from the XSLdocument is blocked until said combined set of content is created suchthat no interaction between said aggregating and said executing thescript occurs; rendering, by a browser on the client system, the fullyaggregated web page through use of the HTML document; displaying therendered fully aggregated web page; detecting, by the client system, anactivation of an element on the rendered fully aggregated web page,wherein the activation of the element causes a change to the combinedset of content; and in response to detecting the activation of theelement on the rendered fully aggregated web page, executing a full pagerefresh of the rendered fully aggregated web page, wherein the full pagerefresh of the rendered fully aggregated web page releases memory thatcontained the XSL document, and wherein the released memory is used tostore the change to the combined set of content that was caused by theactivation of the element.
 13. The computer program product according toclaim 12, wherein said aggregating the web content on the client-side iscompleted before said rendering the fully aggregated web page isstarted.
 14. The computer program product according to claim 12, whereinsaid aggregating the web content on the client-side is performedexcluding any script execution.
 15. The computer program productaccording to claim 12, wherein scripts and styles of the web page areevaluated and executed during said rendering the fully aggregated webpage.
 16. The computer program product according to claim 12, whereinsaid aggregating the web content on the client-side is implemented as asingle extended style-sheet language transformation resulting in an HTMLdocument.
 17. The computer program product according to claim 12,wherein, for said aggregating the web content on the client-side, astyle-sheet document comprising theme components is used.
 18. Thecomputer program product according to claim 17, wherein the style-sheetdocument further comprises portlet related fragments.
 19. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the client system, notice ofa change to a portlet fragment in the rendered fully aggregated webpage, wherein the change to the portlet fragment is addressed by arelative uniform resource locator (URL), wherein the relative URL is anaddendum to a main URL, and wherein the main URL is for all componentsof the rendered fully aggregated web page; caching, in a cache in theclient system, the relative URL; retrieving, by the client system, therelative URL from the cache; retrieving, by the client system, the mainURL; appending, by the client system, the relative URL to the main URLto create a full URL address for the change to the portlet fragment;retrieving, by the client system, the change to the portlet fragmentfrom the full URL address; modifying, by the client system, the renderedfully aggregated web page with the change to the portlet fragment tocreate a new fully aggregated web page; rendering, by the browser on theclient system, the new fully aggregated web page; and displaying the newfully aggregated web page.
 20. The computer program product according toclaim 12, wherein individually received elements of the web page by theclient are independently cacheable on the client-side.